Steamboat Pilot & Today Registry
At around noon on Wednesday, June 29, 2022, dozens of lightning struck the area.
Fortunately, it was still sprayed and the area was relatively wet. Firefighters from the West Ruth Fire District responded to the call at 4 p.m. 56 p.m., and when they arrived, the fire was only ten square feet, according to West Root Fire Assistant Fire Chief Brad Parrot.
“If it was dry, it could have grown faster,” Parrot said.
The scene of the fire was mostly grass and grass brush, and Paro describes the fire as one or two feet high. He said his staff may have been on the scene for less than an hour.
The firefighters dug a small line with hand tools, and the parrot’s water bag was tied behind their backs as they could reach the fire at a distance of 300 meters.
“Every time we use these, we joke about Ghostbusters.
The bird on the fire could not be seen from a distance, Parrot said. He said the local community has been cautious over the past few years in reporting wildfires.
“Over the past several years, we’ve noticed that the community is definitely looking at smoke,” he said.
This time it was a different story last winter. The slide fire near Yampa has been raging for five days, and Ruth County entered a Level 2 fire ban on June 25. Those Level 2 restrictions have been lowered to Level 1 until August 25, 2021.
According to the National Weather Service, seasonal rainfall from the Southwest brought high humidity and daily rains and thunderstorms to northwest Colorado. Rain and thunderstorms are available daily at Steamboat Springs until the middle of next week.
Fires from the Bureau of Land Management are moderate in the areas of Hayden and Stembot Springs, and Moffat County is at high risk. There are currently no fire restrictions in Route County or any of the six surrounding counties.
There is a red flag warning for wildfires across the country, in northwestern Alaska.
To contact Spencer Paul, call 970-871-4229 or email him at spowell@SteamboatPilot.com.
